Using Web Analytics To Improve UX and Revenue

Jim Sterne reports on the The Feedback Loop Gap where organisations have web analytics data but they rarely act on it.

In Jim Sterne’s words:

We have the data, we have the pretty reports, but we do not have an educated team made up of technical and business people who can take the resulting statistics and turn them into meaningful plans.

In my travels I have found that organisations rarely look at their web analytics data let alone act on it in a structured way to improve the user experience, conversion rates and possible ROI or revenue.

Organisations that do look at their analytics, tend to focus on channel measurement (i.e. what channels are driving traffic – or conversions – assuming goals have been set up) or most popular keyphrases or content.

But clearly the power of web analytics data is the interpretation of data and then the execution of that data by way of website enhancements and modifications.

As Jim Sterne’s reports, this requires

a team made up of information system, designers and business people [to] map out the changes necessary to improve usability, increase customer satisfaction, and boost revenue.